Homework help

[TheRealist]

Murder or Suicide?

 

 

 

The story:

 

Regularly, every morning Jenny Goodheart got up at five, munted her bicycle, picked up her batch of morning papers and made her delivieries.

 

One of her stops was at Winston Peacock's. He lived alone and was reputed to have a fortune tucked away somewhere in his house, which was built into a hill so that the only acess was the front door and a couple of side windows. Usually Winston waved to Jenny, and as she pedalled off she could hear the bolt of the door being pulled back.

 

On the last day of the year he greeted her as usual, but the next morning, when there was no sign of him, she assumed that he had the same hangover as most of her customers. On January 2nd, however, there was a paper and two milk bottles still lying in front of his door. Alarmed, she dismounted from her bicycle, and peeked through the nearest window. Though none of the lights were on, she could see Winston, apparently dead, lying on the floor near his desk. The sight set her trembling, and she got on her bicycle and rode as fast as she could to the village police station.

 

A detective went straight to the house. There, after verifying Jenny's account as well as he could through a window, he called his colleagues. They had to smash the window in order to gain entrance.

 

You are a member of the investigative team. Your team must determine weather this is a case of suicide or murder. Analyze the evidence and photograph of the scene of the incident. Decide whether his is a case of suicide or murder.

 

 

 

 

 

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h142/ ... /poser.jpg

 

^um.. sorry I don't know how to make the picture bigger...

 

 

 

Pretty easy stuff, I just want some other opinions, I just guessed suicide :? and we had to write a report to the police explaining why it is suicide or murder.

 

 

 

Little help?

[yomom1919]

murder. the carpet is rolled back possibly leading to an underground stash of cash. the gun was probably pulled out from the desk. it appears in the photo that he was shot on the side of the head, so the murderer didnt need the front door to get in anyway. however this is all speculation, especially since the temple is a common spot for attempted suicides, short and painless.

 

some things to consider: he was at his desk without lights on, which could possibly mean he heard a noise, went downstairs, and was shot. however it could also mean he turned the lights of before killing himself.

[TheRealist]

murder. the carpet is rolled back possibly leading to an underground stash of cash. the gun was probably pulled out from the desk. it appears in the photo that he was shot on the side of the head, so the murderer didnt need the front door to get in anyway. however this is all speculation, especially since the temple is a common spot for attempted suicides, short and painless.

 

 

 

The gun was taken off the shelf. See by the 2 swords?

[yomom1919]

murder. the carpet is rolled back possibly leading to an underground stash of cash. the gun was probably pulled out from the desk. it appears in the photo that he was shot on the side of the head, so the murderer didnt need the front door to get in anyway. however this is all speculation, especially since the temple is a common spot for attempted suicides, short and painless.

 

 

 

The gun was taken off the shelf. See by the 2 swords?

 

 

 

he also has a gun in his hand :? unless thats a really big pointer finger... plus i added to my post before. also the murderer may have expected the man to be old and senseless, so didnt bring any weapons. therefore grabbed the gun off the wall when he heard the man coming.

[TheRealist]

murder. the carpet is rolled back possibly leading to an underground stash of cash. the gun was probably pulled out from the desk. it appears in the photo that he was shot on the side of the head, so the murderer didnt need the front door to get in anyway. however this is all speculation, especially since the temple is a common spot for attempted suicides, short and painless.

 

 

 

The gun was taken off the shelf. See by the 2 swords?

 

 

 

he also has a gun in his hand :? unless thats a really big pointer finger... plus i added to my post before.

 

Yeah... I don't know much about it, but how do you know the lights were off? The reason I don't think it's suicide is there is a to-do list on the desk also. If you were going to kill yourself, why make a to-do list?

[yomom1919]

murder. the carpet is rolled back possibly leading to an underground stash of cash. the gun was probably pulled out from the desk. it appears in the photo that he was shot on the side of the head, so the murderer didnt need the front door to get in anyway. however this is all speculation, especially since the temple is a common spot for attempted suicides, short and painless.

 

 

 

The gun was taken off the shelf. See by the 2 swords?

 

 

 

he also has a gun in his hand :? unless thats a really big pointer finger... plus i added to my post before.

 

Yeah... I don't know much about it, but how do you know the lights were off? The reason I don't think it's suicide is there is a to-do list on the desk also. If you were going to kill yourself, why make a to-do list?

 

it says in the passage that the lights were off.

[Danabis]

Gun off the wall in his hand looks like suicide, could be a setup though.

 

 

 

There's a just-finished note on the desk, could be a suicide note.

 

 

 

Carpet looks like a sign of struggle though.

[TheRealist]

I am too stupid.

 

 

 

Anyway, can someone help me with resizing the photo? There's more information on that if it's resized... Because it wasn't a suicide note it was peice of paper that says "ring broker, laces, phone bill."

 

 

 

The newspaper is also opened to the commodities.

[yomom1919]

im actully thinking robery that turned into murder. i dont see any reason to leave suicide(if he did commit suicide) note because hes a rich old man who probably lost contatct with his relatives a while ago, and the cops could easily find out if he had close relatives. its the suicide kids that are into notes. evidence that he had no close or living relatives: "at the end of the year... on jan. 2nd" that indicates that his family wasnt in contact with him for a few days, and especially since it was around new year's time.

 

it is also apparent that he locked his door every day:

 

"as she left she could hear the bolt of the door being pulled back" this indicates that it was locked at night and opened in the morning, and he opened it to retreive the paper.

 

ps: you could probably find the teachers answer online :wink: .

[Bubsa]

If it was suicide, and he shot himself in the head with a revolver gun like the one in his hand, I guarantee he wouldn't be lying the way he is, there would be a bigger pool of blood and he wouldn't have half of his face/brain.

[yomom1919]

If it was suicide, and he shot himself in the head with a revolver gun like the one in his hand, I guarantee he wouldn't be lying the way he is, there would be a bigger pool of blood and he wouldn't have half of his face.

 

 

 

good one, i forgot ballistics.

[katha610]

can anyone see if the door is locked?

 

if he comitted suicide, he wouldn't lie on the floor like that

 

he has the gun in his right hand, so we have to assume that he is a right handed. i can;t see any evidence in the picture that he could be left handed. so if he shot himself, his position would be different, the blood is on the wrong side. the wound where the bullet leave sthe skull is about 4 times as big as the entry wound. if he comitted suicide you should find particles of gun powder on his skin...........

 

wait......i'm getting too far into that for school stuff.

 

 

 

meh

[yomom1919]

can anyone see if the door is locked?

 

if he comitted suicide, he wouldn't lie on the floor like that

 

he has the gun in his right hand, so we have to assume that he is a right handed. i can;t see any evidence in the picture that he could be left handed. so if he shot himself, his position would be different, the blood is on the wrong side. the wound where the bullet leave sthe skull is about 4 times as big as the entry wound. if he comitted suicide you should find particles of gun powder on his skin...........

 

wait......i'm getting too far into that for school stuff.

 

 

 

meh

 

"they had to smash a windo in order to get in" mabye thats why the door is locked...

[Mr_Putter]

Hmmmm...Pictures really small, difficult to see.

 

 

 

Here's what I think:

 

 

 

The carpet was rolled back. He was rich, and rich people don't get rich by wasting. He didn't want to get blood on his carpet, so it would still be good for whoever inherits it. In a struggle, who seriously peels back a carpet?

 

 

 

Then again, he could have moved away from the carpet. But if you're commiting suicide, you're not thinking straight, are you?

 

 

 

Edit again- On further investigation, it looks like he peeled back his carpet, and then sat down and read the paper, then shot himself and fell forward out of his chair, no blood on the carpet.

[woopidoo2]

Suicide, theres one gun taken off the wall.

[nvw08]

 

 

 

Here's how I see it.. If you look at the image above, you'll see that the tile where the carpet would have been was a different color, and he had a fortune hid somewhere in the house... Add those two together and I'm thinking murder... Here's what I think happened. He's going in to check his fortune late at night for comfort and to admire what he's been able to do. Someone is watching at the window and sees him coming out, with mabye some money to pay bills and what not. They think, he's such an old man, and think of all the money that's in there. So the robber(s) starts making their move... I'm thinking there are 2 of them, one knocks on the door and he opens it; thinking it might be the girl again and when it's not he tries to close the door, they walk in and go over to the window and the robber lets the other one in. The old man realizes whats going on and takes the gun off of the rack. But the robber in the window is faster and shoots him while he's looking at robber 1, who is by the chair. He falls to the ground with a hole in his head and the 2 robbers go down and steal the money, the carpet is already pulled back so they don't have to worry about putting it back...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my idea, some of it may seem farfeched but I'm not working with much. Also, the way that they shot him, with him holding a gun not looking at the window or door makes him look like he's comitting suicide...

[yomom1919]

 

 

 

Here's how I see it.. If you look at the image above, you'll see that the tile where the carpet would have been was a different color, and he had a fortune hid somewhere in the house... Add those two together and I'm thinking murder... Here's what I think happened. He's going in to check his fortune late at night for comfort and to admire what he's been able to do. Someone is watching at the window and sees him coming out, with mabye some money to pay bills and what not. They think, he's such an old man, and think of all the money that's in there. So the robber(s) starts making their move... I'm thinking there are 2 of them, one knocks on the door and he opens it; thinking it might be the girl again and when it's not he tries to close the door, they walk in and go over to the window and the robber lets the other one in. The old man realizes whats going on and takes the gun off of the rack. But the robber in the window is faster and shoots him while he's looking at robber 1, who is by the chair. He falls to the ground with a hole in his head and the 2 robbers go down and steal the money, the carpet is already pulled back so they don't have to worry about putting it back...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my idea, some of it may seem farfeched but I'm not working with much. Also, the way that they shot him, with him holding a gun not looking at the window or door makes him look like he's comitting suicide...

 

 

 

yeah i posted that he had a fortune under his carpet previously in this post :wink: . i dont know about the rest of your theory though.

[katha610]

ther is another tile with different color, i think

[blaringbugle]

About the tile, other tiles are that color, its just the floor pattern.

 

 

 

I say suicide. Here's what I think.

 

 

 

 

 

The small fortune he had was some sort of investment, maybe in the stock market. He kept all of the information on his investment under his carpet. He rolled back the carpet and got the newspaper, saw that he lost all of his money (maybe attributed to the new year?), so he took his gun, shot himself and proceded to fall down onto the floor.

 

 

 

 

 

And as for it being dark, his power went out :wink: